title of record.


	Thursday, May 30, 2002 post://85130794/ Test your compatibility. Post your results. My Results posted @ 19:30 -x- Wednesday, May 29, 2002 post://85127147/ Toys: Treo 270 Laptop Robot Microsoft's Plan Soccer Game Plastic.com Geek it till it MHz posted @ 16:01 post://85127071/ You can probably guess I've been busy as there's been nothing since the 23rd. I got some major XBox-ing done on Thursday night, got Blitz'02, and with a total of 4 controllers... enjoyed multiplayer fun-fun. Couple people made it over, nothing too exciting, but had a nice relaxing evening. Went camping on Friday night, chilled with friends in West Brookfield, saw the consequences of a COBRA 40oz malt... as demonstrated by my friend Justin. They went home, I got the tent... stayed up for a bit, finished up the rest of the beer, and basked in the comfort of my laptop's LCD. Not really =] I realized it was odd being out in the middle of the field using a computer at 2am... but I was bored ^-^ everyone else had already gone to sleep, and there was a slight slapping sound coming from the next tent over, I needed a distraction =]~ I attended a housewarming party on Saturday... talk about a small world. I went with my friend Phil. He knew these people from high school. As it turned out, I recognized the name of the woman's daughter. I knew these people were familiar but couldn't quite place it. Then Becca showed up. I hadn't seen the girl in at least 2 years. We had spent New Years at this woman's old house and had a fairly uneventful New Years get together. It all came back around. It wasn't awkward as I was fearing, though turns out that Phil had dated her briefly as well. We met some new people, acquaintances of the hostess... and had a good ol time. Sunday turned out to be a much needed day off from work -- sick day. =] Phil came over and we hung out... more people kept stopping over, and it eventually turned into a regular raging party -- go fig. I got my Thursday wish... a tad belated... but I was/am happy. Old friends came out from Palmer way, it was great to see 'em again... now that colleges are out everyone is home, and bored. Last night everything took much longer then it should have. Me and Phil were trying to go get some food and it ended up being 11:00 before we got in just under the wire @ Chilli's after trying a couple of other places that were already closed. The waitress was great -- made sure we had everything we needed, gave us a free appetizer, and our food shortly thereafter. She even let us finish as they were cleaning up around us. The food was cheap, as was the beer. I was quite pleased. I will be going there again. Hung out for a short while @ Phil's, went home and flopped asleep. I can't say I remember having such a fun filled week... hell -- it's almost time for my weekend again, though I'm off for a business trip next week. Going out to PA, not too much interesting out where we're going, but I'm hoping they at least have some sort of internet access. Thankfully I've got my portable media bin (laptop) to accompany me. =] posted @ 15:34 -x- Thursday, May 23, 2002 post://85113499/ more x b o x e n\| Totaled (Crash) XIII America's Army posted @ 19:19 post://85113415/ People seem to get less happy with age. I'm an early twenties looking upon late twenties and wondering: "Will that be me?" I miss the gatherings that I used to have when I was younger, the friends who all used to be able to chill with each other -- without issues, no drama. I'm also seeing those that made bad decisions around my age, those decisions having turned their life upside down, and causing regrets. The current "thing" seems to be marriage. I could have told ya that. =] I'm determined in my declaration of no marriage before 30. I used to say 32, but 32 is perfect for kids. Don't ask me why, it just seems a good age to shoot for. Besides, they're my rules and I can break them at any time -- just won't happen until about that time. I don't want to be "stuck" by someone else's fault, I want to know that if I'm in a place I don't want to be: it's because of my own actions. I see a lot of people my age who live in the now, not knowing what they should be doing, then a lot of older people living in the now while all the time knowing what they should be doing and fully ignoring it. It makes me sad to see mother's not with their children. Choosing the nightlife, being out and about to spending time with their kids. Kids shouldn't be a burden, most of the burden that I see is financial... and patience. I want to have the bunch of people I used to have, all chilling together, talking to anyone... being sociable and creating new connections. It seems no one is going at the same pace, it's hard to sync up anymore. I'm attempting to get some people together for this evening, probably tickle-me-XBoxen... but I'm game for anything. =] posted @ 18:54 post://85112198/ Odd... only took about an hour, and a single outburst -- to put me in a bad mood. Not really a bad mood - per se... but I'm not in the jolly mood I was previously. It just irks me and I refrain from saying anything, as maybe they should have. It's amazing how odd the shoe fits when you're trying to put it on the other foot... ack! is EVERYONE in a bad mood today? I thought I was doing good, I hope this doesn't ripple throughout the day, it won't ripple through me, I'm determined to stay in a good mood... it's for the greater good of moods everywhere. =] posted @ 12:01 -x- Wednesday, May 22, 2002 post://85110192/ Not much going on, just choosing more movies to get via NetFlix. Currently working on Lain_03, what a series... it would make quite a game. For those that've asked: Here's a list of my movies. All those movies you've been meaning to see... delivered to your door, keep them as long as you want, 3 out at a time, return 1, get 1 sent as soon as they receive it. Takes much less time then you would think -- I get my movies in about 2 to 3 days. Fully insured, pre-paid envelopes, just seal... and send! Try Netflix! posted @ 18:18 -x- Tuesday, May 21, 2002 post://85107155/ It's somewhat strange that all this video game stuff comes up today... there was a short office discussion as to video games and marriage. Apparently pretty much every male here (Age 20+) plays video games in some form or another. It's usually computer games. Some were given ultimatums - other's continue their "habit". I also read an article about NFL athletes playing more video games, sometimes until all hours of the night, effecting their sleep habits and performance on the field. This seems like a somewhat serious issue. I mean, not everyone who has a game system/computer plays games all the time, but I did find myself up until 1 or 2 last evening. When I was playing PS2 a lot, that was also the case. So -- if someone stays on top of all the latest games, and plays them often... that is a lot of time. I can see when it's really shitty outside... you want to be inside, comfortable and occupied. When it's sunny and nice, however -- people should be out and about. I try to do that... and with online multiplayer services coming soon... there will be even more reason not to leave your house and still have the impression that you're being sociable. The offering of this year's E3, vs. last year is just amazing... better understanding of exactly what can be done with the available technology is allowing higher quality titles (graphics, gameplay, story) to be made... which will bring even more people into the video game realm. Are video games a good entertainment medium, or are they a potential downfall to society? posted @ 17:49 post://85106964/ You can be a U.S. Marshal, too! What's in a name? X B O X Stuff - It's E3, ya know? nVidia XBox Chip Info XBox Live Game Lineup Lord of the Rings: FOTR Terminator: Dawn of Fate Unreal Championship Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter Midtown Madness 3 PC: Knight Rider NY Times: XBox Live posted @ 16:37 -x- Monday, May 20, 2002 post://85103758/ There's more! Would you like to see Star Wars: Episode 2? Operation XBox: complete. I requested they leave it at the local office... did a follow up call bright and early this morning... and sure enough: the package was on the truck for delivery -- not at the office so I could pick it up. They did call me, I'll give them that -- which is the least they can do considering they didn't call on Friday. I was able to manage a meeting with the UPS guy on Main St. later on in the day. Far... far too much effort. I still have to get the breakout box for the HD video & optical audio, but I'll try it normally first -- then compare. posted @ 17:40 -x- Sunday, May 19, 2002 post://85100543/ Songs of the day: Nine Days - Another Day - Maybe not word for word, but it fits today's feeling. Basement Jaxx - Crazy Girl - Speaks for itself. Kick Ass! posted @ 12:33 post://85100498/ Friday was busy... a lot of hither and thither, but nothing exciting. I was hoping on getting my XBox delivered. Had I been up 3 minutes earlier... I was at the front door about 10 minutes to 12... nothing, checked the tracking info -- UPS said they attempted delivery @ 11:57. I checked the side door again - bam, my games... but no XBox. I checked the front of the house: lo and behold -- a tag. I then tried to get them to meet me somewhere, or pick it up from the local office -- they promised me a call that never came. .:sigh:. I can only hope they listened to me when I said "Don't try and deliver it on Monday, I'll pick it up." I went to the Hippodrome last night for my friend Jenn's birthday party. It was a little private bash about an hour before opening. The food was horrid, but free... and the music looped after 4 hours. I was introduced to a friend of a friend, hit it off somewhat. Everyone went back to my place for a little after party, and chaos ensued. There was a very pleasant deaf woman, she tended to get a little loud as she couldn't really gauge the volume. I had a good time, just chillin... talking with Heather. Heather turned out to be married with 2 kids. She of course didn't tell me this until about the end of the evening... cushioning it with "but we're on our way out". Oh yes, and her husband was an alchoholic to top it off... .:sigh:. She said she would contact me... but I think she forgot she didn't have my number, email, or aim. I think that's a good thing, because I'd rather not get involved. That's a little bit too much to be betting on the table, for not too good of a hand. I'm destined to meet crazy women. I don't think I'm going to try any more. Hell, I wasn't trying this time... things just kinda fell in place -- so imagine my surprise. I'm hoping I don't get some weird call in the middle of the night. Is brevity a virtue? ...bar trick. ( @@@ ) ( @@ ) (------------) @@ (__) ( >COUGH< ) @@ (oo) . . . ( >COUGH< ) /--UU--\/ (____________) / \| \|\| * \|\|---\|\| (New) Jersey Cow posted @ 11:59 -x- Thursday, May 16, 2002 post://85093757/ Attack of the Clones was very good. I was impressed as it was much more then I was expecting. It was great to see in full large-screen glory, complete with booming sound. I still haven't seen Episode 1, so I guess I'll have to go back and watch it. I wasn't planning on seeing it the first night... but couple of friends were going and I was planning on hanging with them anyhow... and was able to get my ticket online beforehand, though there were some issues with that. I bought it from movietickets.com and it didn't go through the system in time for the machine to know I had ordered. Customer service desk got everything in order... but Ken and I ended up in puny theater 5... where everyone else had theater 9 - one of the larger ones, but once past the initial usher, we snuck into 2, which was bigger then 5, better sound, etc. The house we looked at was phenomenal -- beautiful in itself, it had a large garage, finished basement, washer/dryer, dishwasher, big back yard, deck, fully furnished, with electricity included! It's 3 bedrooms and the price is an absolute wonder. I want this house. Take some time to do some good: Click for Breast Cancer Click for Hunger Click for the Rain Forest posted @ 13:47 -x- Wednesday, May 15, 2002 post://85091484/ Going to check out that house tonight... took advantage of the XBox's new price, and I've already purchased my ticket for a 12:06 showing of Attack of the Clones. I've been attempting to find the DivX about, which wouldn't stop me from actually seeing it in a theater, but haven't found a real copy of it yet. I've heard of others having them... so I'll most likely stumble on one after the initial release. If you're staying home: Don't buy an Integra... Germany might try and pull a fast one... Ok, bird/dino thing is getting a little odd... posted @ 18:55 -x- Tuesday, May 14, 2002 post://85088340/ The weather the past few days has been fairly dark... it was raining heavily all day yesterday, and was somewhat cold earlier today. About 4:30, or 5 it went from partly sunny to pouring rain. Halfway through the rain the sun came out, shining through the drops... creating somewhat of a sparkling effect on my cubicle wall. The rain has since stopped, and the sun is shining right on me. The trees outside form a sort of canopy, all soggy from the rain, the leaves just droop together. It's a quiet, peaceful time outside. I got a call from Ken regarding another house to look at. We've been looking at several places, each seemingly better then the rest (for the most part). The latest place sounds absolutely wonderful... and we're determined to make a good impression. It's fully furnished, as much as we want to keep, as the current owner is just looking to move down south. Electricity and cable included, dishwasher, washer/dryer, 2 car gararge... It sounds great, I'm really hopeful. I might even be able to move sooner then my original plan of August/September. That would ease my mind about a lot of things. I found a great little utility that goes DivX avi to MPEG in one shot. There's one catch: it's all in Japanese - random ascii characters without a translator program. I still have to do the audio separately, but that can be extracted, or used from the original rip if I keep the file. Now all I need is a good version of Premier to cut the video into hour long segments. I am sure I'll have to play with some settings -- 60 minutes of MPEG supposedly fits on a CD in VCD format... but not sure what quality audio that is -- or if I can keep it in MP3 format for a DVD player to be able to read the audio. I'll post more info in the DivX section of the messageboard. posted @ 19:14 -x- Monday, May 13, 2002 post://85085320/ Weird: Pongo The Clown MSN: Week in Pictures Pretend to understand your dog... Good poetry. posted @ 18:45 post://85084418/ Went out to Quabbin Reservoir for the day on Saturday, it was absolutely beautiful out. My friend Ken and I went up to the summit, hiked through the woods, and enjoyed the beautiful view. It was so clear, you could see for miles. Water, rocks, and trees... as far as you could see. It's a great place to visit if you're ever in Western MA. Observations: One thing I found interesting -- here's this big reservoir... good, clean water... but not a water fountain in sight. There's various buildings around, lookout towers, etc... yet, no water fountains. The bathroom even specifically had a sign: "Do Not Drink Water" The Beach makes a good topic of conversation. Chillin spots are good, unless there's bugs. Trees look they're from "A Bug's Life" through binoculars. The path is never as long as it seems, and it's longer going the other way. posted @ 13:47 -x- Saturday, May 11, 2002 post://85079614/ The internet now has it's own time - .beat Photography site - gallery Don't you wish you had this much time? How about this? Rename files! A... different way of investing. Just because you're not quite depressed enough about the whole situation... posted @ 09:35 post://85079504/ Wow, a lot can happen in a day. I spent a nice relaxing day driving around, getting a haircut, wandering aimlessly around the mall -- you know, important errands. Had to meet up with a few people as they got out of work, hung out for a bit... then moseyed on over to my buddy Phil's. His place is a great gathering place for all. His roommates are always there, only 1 seems to have a job... one's retired @ 35, they add to the spice, however. It's nice to never quite know who's going to be there, who might stop by, and what type of beer they'll be bringing. It's got a good atmosphere, and it's inspiring to see other people about my age actually established (at least house-wise). I hung out there for a while until it was time to make it to the club. FUSE was fairly empty when I got there @ 10:50, they still let me in for $7. I've been there right @ 11, or 5 minutes before... and had to pay $15, usually they'll keep it 7 as long as there's a line outside, if you come after the line's in... you're paying full price. I always try to get there early. It was an interesting night, indeed. I will have to go back and find the date of my initial FUSE experience. It would be good to have them inter-linked. Never underestimate the power of crazy, and never believe anyone. There's more of a lesson to be seen here, but it would have to be too detailed. I'm just glad that I have people that I know I can depend on when it comes down to it. I thank those people -- there's always people of opposite polarity, for whatever reason... so it's good to know there are others on my side. My concern with needing to get out of this general area is only heightened by the events of the past evening: as I was coming home there was a red truck following me from main street onward. I went by my house just out of sheer paranoia, they breaked as I turned, I looped around, took another road to come back out where they'd be passing me, and sure enough they passed and stopped. I flew at that point, well away from my house and general area... circled back around, double checked the area, I knew they were still canvassing, but they really had no idea where I was, so they just stayed around. I got out of my car, noticed break lights the next block over, unusual at 3:30 in the morning. I was watching the breaklights when I heard a car pass behind me, on the opposite end of my street. They stopped, and someone shouted "that was him" I ducked into the shadows... I don't think they actually saw me, but I waited there... wanting them to pass by, just so I could see them without seeing me. They never came. I have no idea if I accidently cut someone off, passed the wrong person... if it's related to my past difficulties... or the events of the evening. I just know it scared the shit out of me, and I know if it comes down to getting away in the car... bring it on. posted @ 07:18 -x- Thursday, May 09, 2002 post://85075737/ I'm so itching to be out -- out of work, and out of home. I haven't done much for the past few nights, though they've been interesting. I had a few people stop by and say hi, but for the most part everyone has been pre-occupied. I spent last night talking with a young lady who I was introduced to at the prompting of a work associate. I saw a picture, so I had an idea of what I was getting into. We sent an email back and forth... get the initial introduction over with. I didn't have a recent picture -- but did have a webcam, so snapped a picture and sent it off. She popped online and we had a good conversation for a while... until she asked if I drank or smoke. She seemed somewhat bothered by the fact that I drank, and she kinda guessed when I said I didn't smoke cigarettes. That seemed to really change her responses from meaningful sentences to "o i c" which I couldn't really understand. I'm not sure if she might have had an initial impression from the picture. I was wearing my visor... if only for hair reasons ;] Other then that my demeanor was carefree and open... didn't get too much of a positive response. Who's to say though, it's always difficult meeting someone the first time, especially someone like me who's cracking jokes left and right. If you don't know a person, you might not necessarily know how they mean something, or how to take it. For example: I asked if she went to any clubs, she said no. I asked her if she danced, she said no. I then asked "ever twitch to music in the dark?" meaning that she might dance if she was just by herself or was possibly self conscious about her dancing... she didn't seem to get it, simply said "no" totally shooting down my funny. =]~ At any rate, it was a chance to meet someone new and something still might come of it, but I'd rather wait to see if she contacts me again, so as not to push anything. I'm 21, I'm required to drink... at least a little. I don't feel obligated to, just... do. I figure it's best to get things like that out of the way quickly, so as not to lead anyone to believe otherwise. I also got a flyer in my email for fuse. I did sign up with my email address at a party put on by Columns of Knowledge, but I figured they'd be emailing me. Instead I get it from this weird E-Flyer company. I emailed them to see about possibly doing video or pictures at an upcoming party, promoting, etc... so we'll see if anything becomes of that. I like the club, I think it's got a lot of potential, but the only good parties I've been to there have been put on by Columns. I'll probably end up going there tomorrow night, just wish there were other people to go with. The previously mentioned movies should be up by tonight, had some network issues last time I checked -- maybe someone bumped the router. Also: I now have serin.dynip.com working, not too much there. It's always on right now, but if I have bandwidth issues I'll discontinue it, or at least stick with FTP. posted @ 18:13 -x- Wednesday, May 08, 2002 post://85071482/ Took a few hours personal time off from work this morning... got some errands done... enjoyed the beautiful weather -- and music, sweet music in my car. It was so nice. I also got a firewire cord for transferring from the DV cam I'm borrowing. I took some video last weekend just for the hell of it, playing with the options -- seeing what I could do with it, etc. It's got really good zoom, and some crazy effects. I'll post what I did, they're 355K WMA files. They should be up within the next couple of days. ...almost time to leave for the evening. Work sure does go by quickly when you come in 2 hours late =]~ Maybe I can find someone to go out and do something this evening... posted @ 17:00 post://85069429/ Updates: edited album window to match the rest of the music page added quite a few of the first albums changed color scheme on movies page The actual song names might be downloadable in the future... or even better -- somehow linked to audiogalaxy or some other p2p program. That way, no one person has to serve the files, and it's decenralized. The actual CDs are available for the cost of shipping and handling - e-m@il me. posted @ 02:06 -x- Tuesday, May 07, 2002 post://85069032/ Well, I've really been working on the site today... got some stuff done as far as the albums. With the completion of "Dumping Grounds" I've been wanting to display it. Check out the music page within the next couple of days... So far while I've been online I've had a few interesting events. I had to clean out a virus from my house-mate's computer. It was as simple as deleting the file via command prompt mode and taking a line out of the registry. Some W32KLOTZ, hta file in the windows/system directory. System works fine, worm eliminated. I hope it didn't crawl onto my network, but didn't seem like a very intelligent one, low risk. I had all my old nero CD files that had the tracks of the "Tech/\/\ i X" compilations on a zip disk. I finally found the correct disk, and the files were corrupt. I ran a scan disk... and there were no files left! I had more then just old CDs on there too... .:sigh:. Anyhow -- I did find a nice little utility to help me out in my quest for track names. I use CD Text on all my CDs, my Alpine deck used to have it... until ahem it was no longer in my car... on my birthday... ahem yes, well... uh, yes -- this little utility right here allowed me to read the CD Text and at least type it up. I had to do #1 (not done with CD Text) the hard way. I was able to recognize each song on it... though I noticed I put "Crazy Town - Revolving Door" on there twice... =}~ I then spoke with the cousin of someone I'd be pleased to hear from... using their AIM sn. They stated they weren't her... then asked who I was, I made them say who they were first... then told her who I was... and she signed off after saying "OH". Not sure if her cousin was using it with her knowledge or not -- but it certainly was odd. Spiffing up some graphics as well... it's always best to do each page at once, at least for me -- I tend to forget how I made a certain thing sometimes. posted @ 22:16 -x- Monday, May 06, 2002 post://85065465/ CNET Journalist blog Enjoy some good old fashioned repartee. Updates: new songs in all catagories (rock & hiphop slightly delayed as they're not blog-ized) news finished "Dumping Grounds" - will post song list in Albums, I hope to set up serin.dynip.org and host the files as well, but we'll see how that pans out... ...more to come. posted @ 19:30 -x- Thursday, May 02, 2002 post://85055504/ I really don't understand -- some people are just... unfigur-outable. So we're there at pool, having a grand old time... we make Jay have at least one drink with us, so he had a white russian. He had brought his girlfriend: she's not of drinking age -- and doesn't agree with drinking. (which I'm sure will change once she's 21) I struck up a conversation with her in the midst of playing pool. Later, as we got back to my place, and they were leaving, it's this conversation that brings my friend to ask: "Did you ask her what she was doing tomorrow?" "Yes...." "Any particular reason?" "...just curious -- didn't know if she had school, or if she was hanging with you. ...she said she was taking it off." "Oh, OK -- just asking, cause I know how you are when you're screwed up." I gave him a hug, another happy birthday and went to give his girlfriend a hug as well -- she then thrust her hand towards me while lunging away from my hug-vance. I quietly said goodbye, and went inside. She can't possibly be serious, does she believe this... or is it simply jealousy or fear that he will now hang out with me, because he's 21, instead of her? I really don't know, but there was no reason for it, especially since I had interests of my own that night -- there should have been no question. I'm just somewhat saddened. I know I won't be able to hang with both of them because of this, someone's going to be questioning my good nature. I guess it's just because alcohol complicates things. Tonight's my Friday, big day tomorrow... so maybe it'll stop raining =] Finally getting another stereo in my car, but it's only going to be the bare essentials... it's not worth it just to have it ripped off again. UMASS is also putting on a comedy thing that looks promising on FRI/SAT night, and the best part about it -- it's FREE! ^-^ As I look around, I see that: Some people are just destined to be laughing about nothing by themselves in a corner... Fun filled link of the day: The Tonight Show posted @ 18:37 -x- Wednesday, May 01, 2002 post://85052383/ Well -- tonight is my buddy Jay's birthday (seems everyone's having one of those lately)... so we're gonna go out for an evening. He's been all busy working, finally going down on his 76-something hours a week workschedule for the summer. It brings back memories of last summer, and last summer was good =] We're also going to surprise someone who hasn't seen him in quite some time (I'm hoping) -- so tonight should be interesting. Now that I have someone to go with, can start checking out the various bars and clubs around here -- Worthington Street -- so many bars, and on one convenient street! (just stay out of the alleyways) There's a bunch of new news today... good stuff, check it out. Trade mix cds with this guy... posted @ 18:57 -x-